Researching the Panama-Pacific International Exposition
by Abigail Markwyn

California Invites the World

When I began my research on the Panama-Pacific International Exposition years ago, nothing was digitized. That meant that archives like the San Francisco History
Center were absolutely essential to my work. It was in the History
Center that I discovered photos and pamphlets, official memos, press
releases, and letters that all helped me bring the fair to life.
Eventually, this research formed the basis for Empress San Francisco: The Pacific Rim, the Great West, and California at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Even today – or rather, especially today – when many historical documents are digitized, there remains much to be learned from visiting the collections of libraries and archives.

The People's Easy Guide to the PPIE

Pamphlets, such as the Exposition City, or the Carnival Spirit of San Francisco offered me insight into just how fair boosters sought to “sell” the city to tourists. They emphasized things like the city’s cosmopolitan population, pleasant climate, and plentiful economic opportunities in the hopes of convincing tourists to consider making the city their home. Other pieces of publicity stressed the fun parts of the fair – the Joy Zone, the restaurants, and the many works of art. Still others reminded visitors of the educational features of the fair. [Archivist's note: these resources are available in the San Francisco History Center's San Francisco Ephemera Collection.]

Photographs, like this one of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition's Woman’s Board revealed to me the extent of these women’s involvement in the fair. Here, they host a dinner for visiting dignitaries and officials, performing an act of cultural diplomacy in their capacity as hostess.

Others, such as these of Japan Day at the fair, reveal in full detail the numerous celebrations that occurred on the grounds to celebrate Japan, even as many Californians vehemently spouted anti-Japanese rhetoric and supported anti-immigrant measures aimed at the Japanese.

Ethnic communities from across the Bay Area gathered on the fair grounds to celebrate their heritage, as this photo of the dedication of the Swedish Building at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition illustrates.

Photographs also reveal the full extent of the racial biases present on the fair grounds. African Americans found little to celebrate at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, as the attraction below reveals. Despite attempts by local blacks to contact fair officials to arrange for exhibits that featured African American accomplishments, blacks remained sidelined at the fair, mainly relegated to demeaning attractions such as the “African Dip,” pictured here.

Historians rely on many kinds of sources for their research, but as these photos reveal, the topic of a World’s Fair lends itself particularly to reliance on the visual record. Collections such as that of the San Francisco Public Library are essential to telling these stories, and I’m forever grateful to those librarians a hundred years ago who carefully collected and cataloged these!

Thursday, February 19, 2015

It's Oscar season once again, and as we have discussed before, the Academy often nominates films set in San Francisco. This year is no exception. Previous nominees take place in either contemporary (Blue Jasmine,Foul Play, and Bullitt) or historical (Milk and The Pursuit of Happyness) versions of San Francisco. This year, however, two Oscar nominated films are set in San Franciscos of alternate universes.

In Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, nominated for visual effects, Marin County apes swing across the Golden Gate Bridge to challenge the last remaining humans living in the overgrown ruins of post-Simian Flu San Francisco.

via 20th Century Fox

via Walt Disney
Animation Studios

In contrast, the Japanese-influenced landscape of San Fransokyo in Big Hero 6, nominated for animated feature, is bright and modern.

While we like San Francisco just the way it is, there are several books and movies that imagine an alternate-universe or alternate-history San Francisco. Along with the recent Planet of the Apes film and Big Hero 6, you might want to check out these titles:

Friday, February 13, 2015

We hope you are enjoying the last weekend of SF Beer Week as these ladies are.

Caption: These New York girls are believed to be pioneers of their sex in the recently-resumed vocation of beer-tasting. They are shown tasting the golden brew at the Lion Brewery, 108th Street and Columbus Avenue, and apparently are convinced that they may sip beer and still not have to worry about 18-day diets for reducing. Left to right: Ann Schindler, Loretta Kelly, and Rose Hesman. [March 29, 1933; International News Photo] [PS 17 BEER]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The San Francisco Public Library owns the photo morgue of the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin, a daily newspaper that covered the time period from the 1920s to 1965. Much of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection comes from theSan Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue. However, the morgue also includes statewide, national, and international subjects and people that have not been digitized or cataloged. When researchers order scans from the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue,selections are cataloged and added to the online database.

Looking for a historical photograph of San Francisco? Try our online database first. Not there? Come visit us at the Photo Desk of the San Francisco History Center, located on the sixth floor at the Main Library. The Photo Desk hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays 10 a.m. to noon, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. You may also request photographs from the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Digging into the archives for our
Panama-Pacific International Exhibition (PPIE) display turned up a small
collection of hand-cut silhouette portraits that were made during the fair in 1915 and
later donated to the library by Eliot Evans of Orinda. Two of those portraits were
cut by Beatrix Sherman, otherwise known as “The Girl Who Cuts Up" -- a woman
who piqued our interest.

Beatrice Sherman was born on January 10, 1894 in Scranton,
Pennsylvania to George and Josephine Sherman. Her father was a printer and author of Practical Printing, and watching her mother cut intricate lace designs was an early influence.She
began taking Saturday art classes at the Art Institute of Chicago at age 11 and
later studied at Henderson College in Arkansas. By 1912, she was back in
Chicago taking classes at the Art Institute, and it was around this time that
the aspiring artist began spelling her first name with an
“x.”

Her career as an artist was launched when she was included
in the Twenty-Sixth Annual Exhibition of Water Colors, Pastels and Miniatures
at the Art Institute in 1914. Then in 1915, when she was 21 years old, she set
off for San Francisco and the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition, where she
made her professional debut as a silhouette artist. She secured a spot at the
entrance to the Palace of Food Products, where she could be found “cutting up”
from 9am to 6pm every day during the fair. She made it clear to attendees that
she was “not connected in any manner with other concessions purporting to be of
a similar nature.” Promotional materials described her as “an American
miniature and silhouette artist; the first since August Edouard (1789–1861) to
place shadow-cutting on the plane of a consummate art.”

While in San Francisco, she also cut portraits for society ladies
at their parties and charity events. By 1915, she had registered a copyright for
her portraits of Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford--presumably
cut at the fair.

She was also cutting miniature “engagement silhouettes in
1915.” What are those, you ask?They were
substitutes for engagement rings and supposed to be glued to your left cheek to
indicate that you were “taken.” They were “Dan Cupid’s latest fad,” and Sherman
suggested that men wear them too, in order to avoid “all possible confusion.”
It was supposed to usurp the beauty spot in popularity-- a clever marketing
concept and vehicle for her talent. [see: Substitute for Engagement Ring Expected to Become All the
Rage below] By the early 1920s, she had also patented and was
selling “Silhouette Stick-on-Figures: A Thousand Designs for Decorative
Purposes, No Paste Necessary.” [see advertisement below]

Advertisement, circa 1920

Advertisement, circa 1920

She set up shop in NYC cutting silhouette portraits in New
York through the 1930s and 1940s and continued finding work at society and
charity events. In the early 1930s, she was advertising in the New York Times classified
section, and Wanamaker’s Department store was advertising her services as a great
idea for Christmas gifts or Valentine’s Day cards. She traveled extensively, cutting
portraits at six World's Fairs in 25 years. She was notable for cutting, by 1937,
all “the Presidents from T.R. to F.D.R.”

Over the years, she studied art in London, Paris, and Mexico; by 1949, she had returned to New York, after a three
year stay in Paris, to reestablish a shop at 24 East 64th Street. She
referred to herself in a newspaper feature at the time as “the greatest little
cut-up in the country.” She reported making her start as a silhouettist when
she was 13 years old and that it took her approximately two minutes to make a
portrait. She estimated that she had completed 10,000 portraits, including those of Henry Ford, Thomas A. Edison, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lillian Russell, and William Jennings Bryan. John F.
Kennedy was her 10th presidential silhouette, done in 1961, from the
sidelines of his press conference in Florida.

Sherman, an entrepreneurial and talented woman, lived out
the last 18 years of her long life in Palm Beach, Florida, where she had lived with her husband Jerome E.D. Montesanteau for many years. She reportedly spoke often about writing a book but apparently never did. She died, just before her 81st birthday, on January 1,
1975 in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Her guestbooks, all believed to
be in private collections, document her life’s work, complete with portraits
and autographs of some of the most famous people of the day. But her comments
about people, and what she learned from a lifetime of studying their profiles,
tell a truth about humanity.“Men are
just as vain as women…and just as sensitive about being portrayed
realistically...The middle-aged spread and the double chin are the chief bogeys for women, and the prominent nose and paunch, the tender spots for men." In general, Sherman "found men who have accomplished things…are
less demanding and more willing to accept themselves as others see them.”

And by the way, one of Sherman's silhouettes was the inspiration for our Valentine this year. Come by on February 14th to see it and for the rare opportunity to experience letterpress printing at the library. Everyone is welcome but broadsides are limited to the first 100 people.

Advertisements: Wanamaker’s, The New York Times, 13 February 1932, p. 14 and 11 November 1932, p. 20. Advertisement: New York Times, 7 December 1930, p. 62.Art Show Planned for Welfare Fund, New York Times, 31 March 1935, p. N7Beatrix Sherman, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia articleBricks Without Straw, American Printer, v. 63, 5 July 1916, p. 49Catalog of Copyright Entries, New Series, 1918, v. 13, No. 1, p. 75, GPO (Google Books)Democrats Honor Mrs. J. Roosevelt, New York Times, 18 February 1934, p. 20Famous Persons in Silhouette, The Green Book, November 1916, p. 929Local Artist Beatrix Sherman To Exhibit at Flagler Museum, Palm Beach Daily News, 30 January 1966, p. 42Press Club Dinner - "Hawaiian Night", The Press, v. 1, #2, p. 14-15, December 1915, The Press Club of San FranciscoReporting Washington With a Pair of Scissors, San Francisco Chronicle, 23 June 1918, p. SM5Silhouette Artist to Exhibit Works, New York Times, 9 October 1949, p. 81.Local Artist Beatrix Sherman To Exhibit at Flagler Museum, Palm Beach Daily News, 30 January 1966, p. 42Many Anecdotes Reveal Commoner’s Career, New York Times, 2 August 1925, p. XX3Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Silhouettes, Framed artwork collection, San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.The Press Club of San Francisco Has an "Hawaiian Night", The Pacific Printer, v. XV, #1, January 1916, p.36Silhouettes Popular in Decorative Art Works, The Bush Magazine, Vol VIII, #2, February 1920Substitute for Engagement Ring Expected to Become All the Rage, San Francisco Examiner Clippings, “Sherman, B.” envelope, April 1915. San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.2-Day Bazaar to Aid Projects of Church, New York Times, 29 March 1949, p. 32Work By Women Artists, New York Times, 7 November 1937, p. 191